A sandmartin over the Severn at Epney

I returned to the river bank at Epney to get a sense of wide open spaces. I hadn't expected the sand martins to be evident, so when a flock of about forty of them flew over me as I neared the flood wall my mood changed.

I love being near the birds, sometimes only a few yards away when they swoop directly overhead. They were chasing insects in the air and none of them seemed to be returning to feed any young in the nests in the wall crevices, as I'd observed last timeI came here.

I think my technique has improved somewhat so that there were far fewer blurs and out of focus shots.

Looking at my pictures I can see many of them have insects in their mouths, which makes me wonder why they don't eat them immediately. Perhaps they are full already, and just flying for the fun of it.